The almanac

Today is Monday, Jan. 19, the 19th day of 2009 with 346 to follow.

This is observed as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Saturn and Mars. The evening stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Scottish engineer James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, in 1736; Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in 1807; American short story writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe in 1809; English metallurgist Henry Bessemer in 1813; French post-Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne in 1839; Ebony magazine founder John H. Johnson in 1918; former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar in 1920 (age 89); actress Jean Stapleton in 1923 (age 86); actor Fritz Weaver in 1926 (age 83); television newscaster Robert MacNeil in 1931 (age 78); singer Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers in 1939 (age 70); actress Shelley Fabares in 1944 (age 65): singers Janis Joplin in 1943 and Dolly Parton in 1946 (age 63); and singer/actors Michael Crawford in 1942 (age 67) and Desi Arnaz Jr. in 1953 (age 56).

On this date in history:

In 1861, Georgia seceded from the Union.

In 1938, the Spanish Nationalist air force bombed Barcelona and Valencia, killing 700 civilians and wounding hundreds more.

In 1975, China published a new constitution that adopted the precepts and policies of Mao Zedong.

In 1977, U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino, who had been convicted of treason for her World War II Japanese propaganda broadcasts as Tokyo Rose.

In 1994, ice skater Tonya Harding's former husband, Jeff Gillooly, was arrested and charged with conspiracy in the attack two weeks earlier on Harding rival Nancy Kerrigan.

In 1995, Russian forces captured the presidential palace in the rebel republic of Chechnya.

In 1999, NATO warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that he must honor the 1998 cease-fire negotiated with the rebels in Kosovo or face airstrikes.

In 2001, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced he had made a deal with the independent prosecutor that would prevent him from being indicted after he left office.

In 2003, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Bush administration might allow Saddam Hussein to seek safe haven in another country as a way to avoid war.

In 2005, the Southeast Asian tsunami death toll was raised to 220,000, including more than 166,000 killed in Indonesia.

Also in 2005, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 16-2 to approve the nomination of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state.

In 2006, monitors for the Dec. 15 Iraq parliamentary elections validated the vote despite reports of "irregularities."

In 2007, the new Democratic congressional leaders, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, warned U.S. President George Bush he no longer had a "blank check" for Iraq.

Also in 2007, former U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, the only member of Congress to plead guilty in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.

In 2008, the majority of black voters in a new poll, a reported 58 percent indicated a change of direction by supporting Barrack Obama over Hillary Clinton for president.

Also in 2008, U.S. President George Bush said that although the economy is growing, the rate of growth has slowed and "there's a risk of a downturn." He called it "a challenging period for our economy."

A thought for the day: In "As You Like It," William Shakespeare wrote:

"All the world's a stage,

"And all the men and women merely players.

"They have their exits and their entrances,

"And one man in his time plays many parts,

"His acts being seven ages."